It was suddenly very apparent to the Ravenclaw 7th years that NEWTs were approaching, and a flurry of preparation began.

Melora was caught up in this too, even though she had begun to spend the majority of her time with either Bea (a Hufflepuff) or Sirius and his friends (all Gryffindors). The others informed her of just how insane this behavior was, although Lily seemed slightly concerned and according to James, had started planning a study schedule.

Unfortunately, the stress of studying caught up to Melora quickly. She was racing to Charms from the lunch, where she had grabbed a quick bite, when it hit her. A painful burning sensation around her heart stopped Melora on a dime, and she doubled over in pain.

This only made it worse, and she let out a gasp from the pain.

“Oh sweet Merlin!” She groaned, clasping at her chest. Her books dropped to the ground and Melora struggled to stand upright.

The corridor was empty, and Melora wasn’t entirely sure what to do. She managed to lean up against the castle wall, but her eyes were tearing from the pain, and there was no way she could get to the hospital wing on her own.

“Melora?” A voice called from down the hall.

Melora let out a whimper of pain in response. Auburn curls flashes in her vision, and she heard someone pick up her books.

“Here place your arm around me,” the familiar voice instructed, “Right, there we go, one step in front of the other.”

After what felt like ages, Melora and her savior arrived at the hospital wing.

Madame Moffat caught sight of them, and immediately led Melora to cot, where she laid down. “It’s this burning pain,” she explained through ragged breath, “right here.” She pointed to her chest and Moffat nodded.

“Heart burn,” she said calmly, searching through her large supply of potions, “Not uncommon in your state.”

There was a hint of judgment Melora chose to ignore. Madame Moffat handed her an orange colored potion that Melora downed eagerly.

Almost immediately, the pain subsided and Melora let out a sigh of relief. Moffat allowed her to rest on the cot for a while, while she contacted the Healers. Melora looked around for whoever helped her to the hospital wing, but the room was empty now, her books left on the chair beside her bed.

Not that she needed to see them now to know who had helped her. Melora had lived with those auburn curls for 6 years; she could pick Stacy Scott out of a crowd in seconds.

When Madame Moffat reached them through the floo, she called Melora in her office to talk to Healer Jacoby in the fire.

“Perfectly normal dear,” Jacoby informed her, “Did you eat a lot in a small amount of time just before?”

Melora nodded, her face coloring. “I was in a rush,” she explained, “I was studying for potions and I hadn’t realized what time it was. But I wanted to eat before class.”

Jacoby waved her hand, “Just be careful,” she replied, “And do relax dear.”

Sirius took the incident much worse when Melora reluctantly reiterated it to him later. She hadn’t planned to tell him at all, but he had noticed her absence in Charms and some sixth year had told Bea he saw her heading towards the infirmary that day. Sirius had cornered her at dinner and demanded to know if she was okay.

Melora had rolled her eyes angrily, Sirius’s actions reminded her of Stephen only a few months before, but she conceded and told him the story, choosing to leave out the detail of who had helped her.

“The Healer’s right,” Sirius said, “You are too stressed out. All this running around isn’t good for you.”

So Sirius came up with his own personal goal, to make her as relaxed as possible.

Sadly, as someone whose life goal had been previously to cause as much havoc as possible, he wasn’t very good at this. Sirius would carry her books and bag, but combined with his own things; he often dropped her parchment, or let her bag spill open. He attempted to give her a massage, but it either hurt, or made Melora extremely uncomfortable. His complements always ended up backwards ("You're looking particularly plump today!"), his handwriting was atrocious when he tried to help her with essays, he tried to stop her from eating things she should, and force her to eat things she shouldn’t. In short, it was a mess.

Bea tried to convince Melora he was being sweet, but after a week, Melora had to but her foot down.

They were walking alone in the corridor, Sirius once again carrying everything, heading towards the library when it happened. Melora had been watching him nervously since they started. Sirius was talking, about what Melora had no idea, and didn’t seem to be paying any attention to her bag, which was slowly beginning to open.

“Sirius—” Melora tried to get his attention on her bag, but he just grinned.

“Wait I’m almost to the best part.”

Unfortunately, in turning to Melora to say this, Sirius caused Melora’s bag to completely fall open and tip out once more. Her quills, parchment, and ink fell onto the floor and Melora watched in horror as her ink well crashed to bits on top of her just finished Transfiguration essay.

“Oh bollocks,” Sirius said quietly.

Melora took a deep breath and tried to calm down, but her anger exploded anyway. “What the hell Sirius?” she yelled, “This is the third time you’ve done this and the second essay of mine you’ve destroyed!”

“I’m just trying to help,” Sirius said quickly.

Melora let out a choked laugh, “Oh yeah and a fat lot of bloody good that’s done! I’m done with it! No more helping me, okay? I can’t stand it! You’re driving me mad!” She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples, “You keep dropping my things and hurting me and insulting me and I’ve had enough!”

“Look Melora—” Sirius started.

“No!” Melora cut him off and her eyes snapped open. She took a breath to insult him again, but then something strange overcame her. She stared blankly at Sirius, suddenly unbelievable aware of how close they were, how wide his gray-blue eyes were, and when his tongue darted out nervously to lick his lips, Melora’s heart began to race.

And before she knew what she was doing, she closed the gap between them, pulled him down to her, and kissed him as if she would die without him.

Sirius responded enthusiastically, dropping their books and bags and pulling her closer. Melora wrapped her arms around his neck and Sirius entangled one hand in her hair and placed the other on her bum. They some how found themselves against the wall, gasping between hot kisses.

“Oh Merlin,” Melora mumbled.

“Yeah,” Sirius chuckled against her mouth. His hand moved up her back and found its way under her shirt. The feeling of his cool hand against her bare skin sent a shock through Melora’s body and she realized just what she was doing and just who with and she jumped back.

Sirius blinked. Melora covered her mouth with one hand and clutched at her chest with the other.